179 
The Social Life of Arctic Birds. 
BY TUE LATE DK. ALFRED E. BREIIM. 
(Popular Science Monthly.) 
“ When the great architect of the universe had 
finished his favorite star, the earth, Satan aspired 
to destroy it. From the seventh heaven lie slung 
down a great stone toward the blooming earth ; 
hut an archangel, witnessing the wicked act, flew 
down faster than the falling rock, and turned 
it aside. The stone fell away up in the Northern 
Sea, and was broken up. The fragments scatter- 
ed on every side and formed cliffs, some of which 
sunk in the deep, while others rose black out of 
the waters. God in his infinite mercy pitied the 
bare devil’s rock and made it fruitful.” Thus 
runs an ancient Lap legend. The rock is Scandi- 
navia; the fragments are the innumerable islands 
that surround it; and the fiords are the clefts be- 
tween the larger stone and the fragments, One 
should have seen the country, rowed through the 
fiords, and gone down the icy mountains to the 
lakes and bays, to appreciate the appropriateness 
of the Saga. 
Scandinavia is an Alpine country, and has, like 
Switzerland and the Tyrol, majestic glaciers, 
musical, dancing mountain brooks, and strong 
rivers rushing over the blue slopes which are re- 
flected in the transparent dark lakes. High up 
among these lie the prettily poised dwellings of 
the men, like Eagles’ nests stuck to the rocks. 
To make the similarity with the Swiss Alps com- 
plete, the green meadows are also not wanting in 
Scandinavia ; and, while the northern mountains 
do not resound with the exultant jodei, joyous, 
fresh, melodious songs may be heard in the 
valleys and on the heights. The difference be- 
tween Switzerland and Scandinavia is neverthe- 
less great, even if we only consider how the deep 
sea cuts into the land and forms large bays which 
receive, from the shadows thrown upon them by 
the dark surrounding rocks, a mysterious yet not 
fearful aspect. 
The fiords of Norway are remarkable, but they 
are not the most peculiar feature of the country ; 
this is found in the innumerable islands which 
rise more than a thousand metres above the sea, 
or, planting their roots in the boundless deep, are 
visible only at low water. These islands are 
f 
AND OOLOGIST. 
Dec. 1885.] 
charming in the highest degree, and their peculiar 
beauty approves itself when the sun is resting 
below the horizon at midnight, and only a breath 
of twilight sweeps over the masses overflowed by 
the water. One might then well believe himself 
in a scene of enchantment. 
The farther the traveler advances beyond the 
polar circle toward the north, the larger and more 
comfortable are the houses, while in the south, 
where the population is denser, they are of 
slighter construction. Yet no furrow is turned, 
no scythe is swung there ; the sea is the field from 
which man derives his living. At the parting of 
day and night, when the sun goes away for 
months, the men sail recklessly in their boats and 
canoes to their anchoring places far up in the 
north, and their spacious houses are quickly filled 
with guests. Obeying the - resistless drift, come 
hosts of fishes out of the deepest deeps of the sea, 
so that the net cast for them mocks the strength 
of the Herculean men, or is torn under the bur- 
den. The throng of the foolish fish is so dense 
that an oar pushed perpendicularly through it re- 
mains upright. Millions are caught, and millions 
go on, so that there is no sign of a decrease in the 
number. This migration of the fishes reaches its 
extreme point at about Christmas time. No 
pencil could reproduce the picture which the 
polar sea exhibits at this season. Hundreds of 
craft, manned with stalwart fishers, are being in- 
cessantly filled with speckled prey ; as far as the 
eye can reach, nothing but fish, which crowd 
and press upon one another to get to the breeding 
place; the massive glaciers and rock-built shores 
in the background, and, as illuminants to the 
scene, the ghostly moon and the crackling north- 
ern lights. All this time ihere is also twilight 
on the southern horizon, and toward February a 
narrow strip of the sun shows itself again, gradu- 
ally to rise higher. With the first appearance of 
day the fishes begin to sink slowly in the fathom- 
less depths. As the sky becomes brighter, the 
sea and its bays become more quiet. The boats 
cease to glide over the surface of the waters, the 
fishermen go home with their spoil, and the 
northern world lies silent, basking in the beams 
of the returning sun. But this quiet only lasts 
for a few weeks, when new noisy, swarming 
hosts come to the islands. They are the birds, 
which come up from the sea to the land. It is a 
deeply poetic trait in the lives of these creatures 
that only two causes determine them to seek terra 
firma — the power of love and the approach of 
death. The sea bird, weather proof, lives on the 
sea. He hunts his food by diving, swinging over 
the billows, and sleeps and dreams with his head 
hidden under his wings. But there comes a time 
when the earlier sunbeams kiss the northern isl- 
ands ; then he is mightily moved in his soul, and 
hastens to the coast to celebrate there his annual ( 
wedding. And, when lie feels that death is near, 
he swims with his feeble limbs back to the place 
of his birth, there to close his life. It is the same 
feeling that inspires in aged men that ardent de- 
sire to return to their old home to die and be 
buried there. To the naturalist who goes to the 
north to study the ways of the birds this trait in 
their character is of peculiar interest. Of one of 
the tribes of these colonists of the northern bird 
mountain I must make particular mention. It is 
the Ekler Click, the producer of down. It be- 
longs to the family of the Ducks, and iorms,so far 
as bodily stature is concerned, one of the largest 
species of the group. The plumage of the male 
is handsome and brilliant. In it black, red, 
ashen-gray, ice-green, white, brown, and yellow 
are mingled with splendid effect. His head and 
back are snow white, his neck is rose red, and the 
lower part of his body is deep black. The female 
is less richly colored, in a modest garment 
adorned with gray and black spots and stripes. 
The Eider Duck is a real sea bird, and is excelled 
by none of its fellows in diving, while no other 
bird is more awkward in flying and helpless in 
walking. On the ground it moves with a toil- 
some waddle, stumbles and falls flat ; and it 
greatly prefers the fluid element to the solid land. 
The birds generally live during the Winter in 
large flocks on the open sea, and feed themselves 
with shell fish which they bring up from the bot- 
tom. But, as soon as the Spring sun begins to 
shine over the waves, the drake feels newly 
awakened the old love in his heart for his mate, 
and he renews his wooing. One pair after an- 
other leave the host and swim steadily toward 
the land. This wedding journey toward the 
breeding place offers a pretty picture of conjugal 
life. From the moment when the pair have 
found one another again there rules only one 
will, that of the Duck, to which the male yields 
fully and without wavering. Quite noticeable 
are his courteous attention and tenderness toward 
his spouse, which Madame Duck takes, as matters 
of course, in calm dignity. She steadily makes 
toward the shore, and finally lands, hardly heed- 
ing the cautions of her mate, whose instinct, 
sharpened by the experiences of former journeys 
he may have made, prompts him to beware of 
the devices of men. Loyally he waddles into the 
country, and follows her in her interminable 
tours while she is looking for a suitable nesting 
place. Madame shows an exceedingly dainty 
taste during her explorations, carefully examin- 
ing every bush, shrub, stone, and protected spot, 
